Theme:

• Hard work was the cornerstone of life for a laundress in the 1840s.

Goals:

• To interpret how army regulations governed the life of the company laundress.
• To involve students in a hands-on-activity.

Objectives: After participating in this program, the students will be able to:

• Name at least two regulations a laundress had to follow.
• Demonstrate one step of the laundry procedure.
• List three things the laundress used to wash clothes.

Suggested Activities:

• Let the students try scrubbing clothes on the washboard.
• Have the students figure out how much money each laundress made each month. Use the formula of 4 laundresses to a company of 60 soldiers with each laundress making 50 cents
  per month for each soldier's clothes that they washed.